Also known as Mani or
Manichaeus; Iranian philosopher and religious teacher,
founder of the Gnostic religion of Manichaeism. Crowley's placement of Mani in
this position is curious. Mani was a later teacher than Basilides, Valentinus
and Bardesanes. Also, whereas these teachers considered themselves Christians,
Mani was the founder of an entirely new religion, which claimed to be the
culmination of Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Buddhism. The reader who is
unfamiliar with Gnosticism may benefit by reading the sections on Basilides,
Valentinus and Bardesanes before proceeding with Mani.

Mani's Persian name was
Shuriak, or Cubricus in Latin. He was born in
southern Babylonia of noble Persian stock. His father, Patak, was from Ekbatana,
and was a religious leader of a Jewish-Christian baptizing sect called the Mughtasilah,
founded by a prophet known as Elchasai, and it was within the religious
framework of this sect, and under the careful tutelage of his father, that Mani
was raised. When he was twelve years old, he experienced a vision in which an
Angel named At-Taum, "The Twin," instructed him to withdraw
from the Mughtasilah and begin to purify himself with ascetic practices. The
Angel returned to Shuriak the young man, and this second time, called upon him
to preach a new religion.

In 242
e.v., he proclaimed a new, universal religion at the Persian court of
Shapur I, proclaiming himself to be Mani, "The Vessel," the prophesied
Paraclete, the divine helper of mankind, and the last of the great prophets. In
his new religion, he consciously sought to reconcile the great religions of
redemption, Christianity (Gnostic), Zoroastrianism (Zurvanite) and Buddhism (Mahâyâna),
in a new Syncretism which also incorporated elements of Greek philosophy and
Indian Jainism; while refuting patriarchal Judaism. He was not, at first, well
received, and was forced to flee the country. He travelled to Trans-Oxiana
(modern Uzbekistan), India and Western China, making converts wherever he went.
He intended that his religion be a world-religion, in fact the first
world-religion, and he consciously adapted his teaching to accommodate local
beliefs and customs. He was regarded by his Christian adherents as the Paraclete,
by his Persian followers as the Zoroastrian redeemer Saoshyant, and by his
Buddhist disciples as the Avatar Maitreya.

In addition to an extensive body of anti-Manichaean literature in many
languages, Mani and Manichaeism have themselves left us numerous texts in Latin,
Greek, Coptic, Middle Iranian, Uighur, and Chinese. Manichaeism is, therefore,
relatively well understood today. Among the extant Manichaean sacred texts are: The
Living Gospel; The Treasure of Life; the Pragmateia; the Book of Mysteries; the
Epistles; The Book of Giants; and Psalms and Prayers. These books were, at
least in part, considered to have been inspired by Mani's Angel, At-Taum. There
is also the Shahburagan, a summary of the Manichaean teachings prepared
for Shapur I; the Ardahang, a picture-book illustrating Mani's view of
the world; and the Kephalaia, a collection of the sayings of Mani.

Mani eventually returned to Persia, where his following had greatly
increased. This time, he was favorably received by Shapur and by his successor,
Hormisdas I. He was allowed to preach freely, and was even given a city in
Khuzistan for his residence. He finally fell victim to the established
Zoroastrian priesthood during the reign of Bahram I, the successor of Hormisdas.
He was arrested at Gundev Shapur in 276 e.v. and thrown into prison in chains,
where he died after 26 days. His corpse was flayed, and his skin was stuffed
with straw and nailed to the gate of the city. His Persian followers were then
subjected to severe persecution, but Manichaeism outside Persia flourished.
Records show the Manichaean religion to have spread to Iraq, Syria, Palestine,
Egypt, North Africa, Asia Minor, Armenia, Dalmatia, Rome, Spain, Southern Gaul,
Trans-Oxiana, Turkestan, India, China and even Tibet.

In the doctrine of Manichaeism, "The Teaching of Light" as it was
called, the Universe was originally divided between two eternal, uncreated, and
utterly irreconcilable principles: Light and Darkness. The Realm of Light was
located in the North, tended upwards, and extended infinitely to the North, East
and West. It was ruled by the Father of Greatness (identified with Zurvan in
Persia), and was manifested as five "worlds": Nous (Mind), Ennoia
(Thought), Phronêsis (Prudence), Enthymêsis (Reflection), and Logismos
(Reason); which are surrounded by a great number of Aions. Twelve of these Aions,
the "first-born," surround the Father, three to each quarter of the
Heavens.

The Realm of Darkness (Hylê) was located in the South, tended
downwards and extended infinitely only to the South. It was ruled by the Prince
of Darkness, and was also manifested as five "worlds": smoke, fire,
storm, mud and darkness. From each of these five worlds grew a tree, and from
the Five Trees came the five species of demons. The demons were divided into two
sexes, and their existence was characterized by constant warfare and
procreation. Each world of Darkness was ruled by an Archon: a Demon, a Lion, an
Eagle, a Fish and a Dragon. The Prince of Darkness combined within himself the
attributes of all five Archons.

Due to its inherent restlessness, the Realm of Darkness was always
approaching the borders of the Realm of Light and contending with its forces.
Once, a chance shift in the battles within Darkness elevated the Prince of
Darkness to the highest point of his realm, where he beheld the Light, and the
magnificence of the Realm of Light bred in him the desire to possess it. He
resolved to make war on the Realm of Light with his demons.

The Father of Greatness saw that it was necessary to meet the challenge of
the forces of Darkness. But his Aeons were meant for peace, and they could not
be sent to do battle with the demons; so the Father resolved to go to battle
himself. To do this, He called forth three Evocations from Himself.

In the First Evocation, the Father called forth the "Great Spirit"
or "Wisdom" (Sophia). The Great Spirit projected the "Mother of
the Living," and the Mother of the Living projected the "First
Man" (identified with Ohrmazd in Persia). The First Man, with his five
sons, fire, wind, water, light and ether who composed his Soul and were also the
"five garments of Light" which made up his armor, descended into the
Realm of Darkness to do battle with the invading demons.

While battling the Demons in the Realm of Darkness, the First Man managed to
sever the roots of the Five Trees of Darkness, thus preventing the further
growth of evil. However, the demons eventually overwhelmed him. He sacrificed
his Soul, composed of his five sons who were his five garments, to the swarming
demons. The demons devoured his sons, his Soul, and left him lying unconscious
on the battlefield.

Light, the substance of the Soul of the First Man, was thus engulfed by the
Darkness of matter. Over time, this Light was poisoned by matter, and lost
consciousness of its nature; but also matter was poisoned by the Light, and
gradually became utterly dependent upon it for survival.

Eventually recovering consciousness, the First Man stirred himself on the
battlefield and prayed seven times for help to the Father of Greatness. The
Father heard his prayer, and responded by initiating the Second Evocation of
Himself, in which He called forth "The Friend of the Lights," who
called forth "Great Architect" who called forth the "Living
Spirit" (identified with Mithra in Persia). The Living Spirit called forth
five sons: "Bearer of Brightness," "King of Honor," "Adamas
of Light," "King of Glory," and "the Supporter"
(Atlas), who descended into Darkness to find the First Man.

The Living Spirit then sent out an awakening Call to the First Man below. The
Call, together with the First Man's Answer, arose from the depths into the Realm
of Light. The Living Spirit accepted the Call and donned it as a cloak; and the
Mother of the Living accepted the Answer, and donned it as a cloak. The Living
Spirit and the Mother of the Living then went down into the Realm of Darkness
where the First Man and his sons were. "Call" and "Answer"
together became personified as a divinity named "Reflection of Life"
or the "Great Idea."

Number
of Manichaean folio written in Pahlavi (Click to enlarge)

Encountering the First Man, the Living Spirit stretched forth his right hand
to him, lifted him up from the Darkness, and led him back to the Light; but the
Soul of the First Man, the particles of Light from his five sons, remained
behind, submerged in Darkness, awaiting redemption. Reflection of Life
strengthened the desire of the lost particles of Light for their Home in the
North.

The Living Spirit then returned to the Realm of Darkness and made war upon
the demons. He created the World from their bodies and the Light imprisoned
therein. From their bodies he fashioned the eight earths, from their skins the
ten heavens. He fastened the five Archons, living, in the firmament. He divided
the Light which was within the Realm of Darkness into three parts, according to
its degree of mixture with matter. From the remaining undefiled Light he created
the sun and moon, from the remaining Light which had been slightly defiled he
created the stars. He created three great Wheels for the redemption of that
Light which was retained by matter: the Wheel of Fire, the Wheel of Water, and
the Wheel of Wind; all under the control of the King of Glory. Bearer of
Brightness was set to hold up the ten heavens, and Supporter was stationed to
hold up the three upper earths. The Living Spirit had created the World as a
vast mechanism for the Redemption of the Light-- all that remained was for the
mechanism to be set in motion, a task to be accomplished by the Third Evocation.

At the entreaty of the Mother of the Living, the First Man and the Living
Spirit, the Father of Greatness called forth the Third Evocation. The principle
figure of the Third Evocation was the "Third Envoy," or the "God
of the Realm of Light," who dwelt within the sun. The Third Envoy was of
both male and female aspect, and engendered twelve daughters, the Maidens of
Light, who represent the Zodiac.

Before the great universal machine could be set in motion, the Third Envoy
had to create a pathway to the Realm of Light. This he did in the form of the
"Pillar of Glory" or "Column of Light," also called the
"Perfect Man." The Pillar of Glory can be seen in the night sky as the
Milky Way. When the universal machine was set in motion, the purified particles
of Light would ascend via the Pillar of Glory to the moon during the first
fifteen days of each month. When the moon became full, it would empty its
collected Light into the sun during the final fifteen days of each month, whence
the redeemed Light would pass on to a place called the "New Aeon"-- a
place designed by the Great Architect and ruled by the First Man. The New Aeon
was consubstantial with the Realm of Light, but would remain apart from it until
the Last Day.

Upon completion of the Pillar of Glory, the Third Envoy set the sun and moon
and the Three Wheels of Fire, Water and Wind in motion. It was then necessary to
deprive the Archons, suspended in the sky by the Living Spirit, of the Light
they had consumed. To accomplish this task, the Third Envoy revealed his/her
male and female aspects naked to the Archons. The male Archons, beholding the
nakedness of the female aspect of the Third Envoy, the Virgin of Light,
ejaculated. Their seed fell to earth, and with it the Light they had swallowed.
A portion of their seed fell on the water, and became a huge sea monster which
Adamas of Light attacked and defeated. The portion of the seed that fell on land
became the five types of vegetable life. The female Archons, sickened by the
turning of the wheel of the zodiac to which they were bound, aborted the embryos
they carried as a result of their unions in Darkness. The abortions fell to
earth and became demons which began to devour the plants and procreate, thereby
producing the five types of animal life. Through the changing of the seasons and
the cycle of life, the process of the redemption of the Light had been
initiated.

The Prince of Darkness beheld the beginning of the process of Redemption, and
feared the final loss of the particles of Light. In order to bind the Particles
of Light to itself more closely, Darkness conceived of an Averse Creation. It
conjured two demons, the male Asaqlun or Saklas and the female Nebroel or
Namrael to devour the offspring of the other abortions, absorbing and
concentrating their Light; they were then to unite and produce two children in
the male/female image of the Third Envoy.

The Light collected by the two demons by devouring the other demons was
passed on to their two children as the Soul, and the two children were named
Adam and Eve. Imprisoned along with the Soul of Light in the demon-born bodies
of the first human pair is the Dark Spirit, Az, composed of lust and
greed, who was placed there by Darkness to ensure that the Light would continue
to remain imprisoned in matter.

In a
counter-maneuver, the Third Envoy called forth Yiso Ziva,
"Jesus the Radiant" or "the Shining" to awaken Adam and
enlighten him with respect to the divine origin of the Soul, and its
imprisonment in the body. Jesus the Radiant took on material form, crucifying
himself on the cross of matter, to confront Adam. Enlightened, Adam resolved
upon chastity, renouncing the prolongation of suffering which was procreation.
Eve, however, was seduced by a demon, and bore to the demon two children, Cain
and Abel. The continued bondage of a portion of the Light was thus assured, and
its ultimate redemption was considered the responsibility of Humankind.

To assist Humankind in its Work towards Redemption, Jesus the Radiant called
forth the "Mind of Light," the Father of All Apostles (the Holy
Spirit), to send prophets who would bring the Gnosis to the people and show them
the Way to Redemption. The Mind of Light caused Adam and Eve to unite one time
to bring forth the first such prophet, whose name was Seth. Later prophets were
Noah, Shem, Abraham, Enosh, Nikotheos, Enoch, Buddha, Aurentes, Zoroaster, Jesus
(whose crucifixion was the resolution of the earlier crucifixion of Jesus the
Radiant on the cross of matter), Paul, and, finally, Mani, who was the
"Seal of the Prophets."

With the Gnosis comes the will to redemption, and the Gnosis enables the Soul
to withstand evil by clothing it in the five virtues of Love, Faith (or Law),
Perfection, Patience and Wisdom. Religion is the weapon of the Gnosis in
striving to keep the Soul awake and resolute against the attacks of Darkness
which cause forgetfulness. When the individual dies, the body descends to
Darkness. The Soul, if awakened, ascends the Column of Light to the moon, thence
to the sun, and thence to the New Aeon. If asleep, the soul is reincarnated on
earth.

The Last Day, the end of the World, will occur when the deliverance of the
Light is nearly complete, and the World, being deprived of most of its Light, is
in a degenerate state of materialism. The Last Day will be signaled by a great
war, followed by the second coming of Jesus. Jesus will separate the remaining
awakened souls from those remaining asleep, then withdraw himself with the last
awakened souls to the New Aeon. Bearer of Brightness and Supporter will abandon
their posts, and the great mechanism of the World, now useless, will collapse
upon itself in a great fire which will burn for 1468 years, liberating the last
remaining particles of Light from matter. These particles will gather together
to form the "Last Man," or the "Last Statue," and ascend to
the New Aeon. Darkness will collapse into a lifeless clod, which will be cast
into the pit that was once its realm, and the pit will be sealed with an
enormous stone. Having been deprived of the Light upon which it had become
dependent, it will be powerless to ever again attack the Realm of Light.
Finally, the New Aeon will be united with the Realm of Light, and the
restoration of the Light will be complete.

The Manichaean Church had the task of caring for the Light that remained in
the world, protecting it from injury, and attempting to purify it and lead it on
to the path of deliverance. The means of accomplishing this task was strict
ascetism, the reduction of all relations of life to a minimum.

In practice, such rigid ascetism can only be accomplished by a few; thus, the
Manichaean community was divided into two distinct groups: the Electi, or
"Perfect," who adhered to a rigid ascetism and who formed the real
core of the Church, and the Auditores, or "Hearers," who
gathered around the Elect to hear their teachings and to obtain merit by serving
them. The church hierarchy, recruited only from the Elect, consisted of Mani's
successor, the Head of the Church, called the Archêgos or Princeps,
twelve master teachers called Magistri, 72 Bishops or Deacons, and 360
Presbyters or Elders. Women could become Elect but not officers.

The Elect were bound by the Three Seals: of the Mouth; of the Hand; and the
Genitals. These Seals required them to abstain totally from meat and wine, lying
and hypocrisy, work, sexual intercourse, ill-treatment of animals and plants,
pollution of water, and the owning of personal property. They were allowed one
vegetarian meal per day, and were required to fast every Monday and for two
successive days five times each year. They were dedicated to contemplation,
study and the translation of religious writings (the Manichaeans had developed
their own script), and were enjoined to pray, by the singing of hymns facing the
sun or moon, seven times each day. By adherence to this strict regimen, the
Elect expected to achieve deliverance for their Souls at death.

Such a life could obviously not be led without external support, which was
provided by the Hearers. The guilt incurred by the Hearers in performing the
work necessary to support the Elect was absolved by the Elect, but nevertheless
resulted in a delay of the deliverance of the Souls of the Hearers by a period
of one or more incarnations. The Hearers were expected only to live by ten
commandments: 1. to take but one spouse; 2. not to fornicate; 3. not to lie; 4.
not to be hypocritical; 5. not to worship idols; 6. not to practice magic; 7.
not to kill animals (though they were allowed to eat meat from animals killed by
others); 8. not to steal; 9. not to doubt their faith; and 10. not to neglect
their duties to care for the Elect. Four prayers per day were prescribed for the
Hearers. They were expected to fast every Sunday. Once each year, for 30 days,
they were expected to eat only one meal per day along with the Elect. Before his
conversion to Christianity, Saint Augustine was a Manichaean Hearer for nine
years. He later advocated the wholesale burning of all their books, regardless
of their beauty.

The restrictions on ownership of personal property, although applicable to
the individual Elect, did not extend to the Manichaean community as such. The
accumulation of communal property was permitted, and many communities
accumulated considerable wealth through money lending.

The Manichaeans rejected the Eucharist and most of the Christian sacraments,
replacing them with their own ceremonies of prayer, recitation and reading of
scriptures, music, singing, fasting and feasting, and weekly confession. The
central ritual of the community was the Table-- the daily common meal-- in which
the Hearers would ritually serve, and the Elect would ritually consume, such
foods as were to considered to possess a high content of Light, such as
cucumbers, melons, wheat bread and fruit juice. The Light would be absorbed into
the bodies of the Elect, there to be retained until their deaths, when it would
be delivered up the Column of Light with their souls. The Light contained within
animals was considered to be too closely bound to matter for liberation through
digestion.

The Manichaeans also celebrated the annual feast of the Bema, or the
Master's Chair, each Spring. The Bema was a commemoration of Mani's death, and
was the culmination of the 30 day fast enjoined on the Hearers.

Manichaeism ultimately failed in Europe and the Middle East by its inability
to compete with Islam and Christianity. The rival faiths offered much easier
paths to understand and to follow, were far more ruthless in their campaigns of
conversion, and, unlike Manichaeism, threatened an afterlife of eternal torture
for unbelievers. Perhaps even more significantly, both Muslims and Christians
were allowed to become wealthy; which assured the support of the nobility and
the merchant class.

Manichaeism continued to flourish in the barren plains of Central Asia, where
it became centered at the city of Turfan in what is now northwest China. It even
became the state religion of the short-lived Uighur Empire, until it was wiped
out in the 13th century e.v. by the Mongol invasions. It survived in Southern
China as the "Religion of the Venerable Light" until the 17th century
e.v.

Even after its official demise in Europe in the 6th century
e.v., a number of
similar Christian sects arose from its ashes, persisting until well into the
Middle Ages. The most important of these sects were the Bogomils of Bulgaria and
the Cathars or Albigenses of the Languedoc region of Southern France. While
these later sects were "Manichaean" only in the sense that they shared
certain concepts and practices with the old followers of Mani, they were,
nevertheless, as vigorously persecuted by the political-religious power
structure as were the Manichaeans.

The Cathars were highly successful from about 1150
e.v. to 1209 e.v., and
helped to turn the Languedoc into a prosperous medieval center of learning and
culture-- the birthplace of the troubadours-- where Christian (Cathar), Jewish
and Islamic scholars freely intermingled and discoursed upon theology,
philosophy and science. The Cathars were probably highly influential in the
development of the traditions of the Holy Graal, and may also have influenced
the Knights Templar. Some scholars believe that what we know today as the Hebrew
Qabala was codified in the spiritual melting-pot of Southern France and Spain
during these times. Pope Innocent III proclaimed what came to be known as the
Albigensian Crusade against the "dangerous Cathar heretics" in 1209
e.v. During the 40 years of this infamous horror, many thousands of men, women
and children were brutally slaughtered and their cities pillaged; and the
Languedoc was reduced to rubble and barbarism.

Laetscher, Lefferts A. (Ed. in Chief); The Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of
Religious Knowledge, an Extension of the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of
Religious Knowledge, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI 1955

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